Acres Homes was the wrong place for these felons, but where is the right place?

High-risk sex offenders who were living at an Acres Homes house will be moved back to the Beaumont Highway halfway house from where they came.

Few folks want to live next to ex-convict sex offenders. No question about that. The real question is: Where are those ex-convicts supposed to go after serving their sentences?

Layers of restrictions and regulations intended to protect communities from sexual predators direct these ex-convicts to live in a few limited areas. True Safe Haven, a boardinghouse in Acres Homes, should not be one of those places. Twenty-one ex-offenders in a civil commitment program were moved from the Southwest Texas Transitional Treatment Center near Beaumont to that dilapidated, three-bedroom home in February. Neighbors didn't receive notice until March.

State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, have said they're working to ensure that these ex-convicts get the boot from Acres Homes and leave the beds for low-risk felons on probation - the halfway home's original intent. The final stop for these folks will likely be a secure jail or prison, such as an empty 48-bed lockup in Caldwell County.

But something is wrong with our criminal justice system when we release ex-convicts to freedom yet don't trust them to live in our communities. They have served their time. We cannot punish people forever - even sex offenders - if we want them to become productive members of society. Yet the programs that are supposed to help those convicted for sex offenses reintegrate back into society, such as civil commitment, often keep them locked up indefinitely. Other programs, such as limiting where sex offenders can live, have little effect on recidivism rates, which are already low.

Knowing that no former sex offenders live in your neighborhood may contribute to a peaceful state of mind, but it doesn't necessarily contribute to peace under the law. In fact, overly restrictive residency rules may lead ex-convicts to lie about where they live or force now law-abiding citizens out of their homes. Perhaps sex offenders need halfway homes of their own where they can get the treatment they need and the supervision society wants.

Our laws should target the harm we want to prevent, not merely punish the people we don't like.